"His wife says he"s very soft-hearted - Guye! Don"t you dare do that! If you"re going to do that sort of thing do it upstairs!"
The Baron looked only moderately ashamed, but readjusted his clothing anyway.
"Bandits!" he said.
"Yes, they could be a problem at this time of year," said Wolfgang.
"At least a dozen," said the Baroness. "Yes, that should - "
Wolf grunted, upside down. "No, Mother. You are being stupid. His coach must get here safely. You understand? When he is here... that is a different matter."
The Baron"s massive eyebrows tangled with a thought. "Plan! King!"
"Exactly."
The Baroness sighed. "I don"t trust that little dwarf."
Wolf somersaulted on to his feet. "No. But trustworthy or not, he"s all we"ve got. Vimes must get here, with his soft heart. He may even be useful. Perhaps we should... assist matters."
"Why?" snapped the Baroness. "Let Ankh-Morpork look after their own!"
There was a knock on the door while Vimes was having breakfast. Willikins ushered in a small thin man in neat but threadbare black clothes, whose overlarge head gave him the appearance of a lolly nearing the last suck. He carried a black bowler hat the way a soldier carries his helmet, and walked like a man who had something wrong with his knees.
"I am so sorry to disturb your grace..."
Vimes laid down his knife. He"d been peeling an orange. Sybil insisted he eat fruit.
"Not your grace," he said. "Just Vimes. Sir Samuel, if you must. Are you Vetinari"s man?"
"Inigo Skimmer, sir. Mhm-mhm. I am to travel with you to Uberwald."
"Ah, you"re the clerk who"s going to do all the whispering and winking while I hand around the cucumber sandwiches, are you?"
"I will try to be of service, sir, although I"m not much of a winker. Mhm-mhm."
"Would you like some breakfast?"
"I ate already, sir. Mhm-mhm."
Vimes looked the clerk up and down. It wasn"t so mush that his head was big, it was simply that someone appeared to have squeezed the bottom half of it and forced everything up into the top. He was going bald, too, and had carefully teased the remaining strands of hair across the pink dome. It was hard to tell his age. He could be twenty-five and a big worrier, or a fresh-faced forty. Vimes inclined to the former - the man had the look of someone who had spent his life watching the world over the top of a book. And there was that... well, was it a nervous laugh? A giggle? An unfortunate way of clearing his throat?
And that strange way he walked...
"Not even some toast? A piece of fruit? These oranges are fresh from Klatch, I really can recommend them."
Vimes tossed one at the man. It bounced off his arm, and Skimmer took a step backwards, mildly appalled at the upper class"s habit of fruithurling.
"Are you all right, sir? Mhm-mhm?"
"Sorry about that," said Vimes. "I was carried away by fruit."
He laid aside his napkin and got up from the table, putting his arm around Skimmer"s shoulders. ;That"s what I thought too, sir."
Vimes sighed. "I hate the political ones."
When they"d gone, Lady Sybil sat for a while staring at her hands. Then she took a lamp into the library and pulled down a slim volume bound in white leather on which had been embossed in gold the words "OUR WEDDING".
It had been a strange event. Ankh-Morpork"s high society - so high that it"s stinking, Sam always said - had turned up, mostly out of curiosity. She was Ankh-Morpork"s most eligible spinster, who"d never thought she"d be married, and he was a mere captain of the guard who tended to annoy a lot of people.